Leader of the Lonely, prologue
by sltoocoolish
Summary: Happens after Matt disappears from the group and the Puppetmon battle. Will Matt decide to go back to the others? or will he choose to stay alone? Is he really alone? What's with all the questions? Read for yourself!


Author's Note: Finally! I've got one part of a proper fanfic up! Well, I've got more coming on this one and after Tuesday, I'll   
be typing up more of my others. Just a couple more days 'till exams are over and I'm free from school! Then I'll   
have all the time in the world for more fanfics. So watch this space. Well enough of my babble, on with the   
story. 

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Leader of the Lonely, prologue   


A thick blanket of fog surrounded the ground, but it was only a ground cover. The tops of the fir trees could clearly be seen from the cave up on the side of the mountain where the deep blue eyes of Matt Ishida were gazing over the territory that he now governed. However his new responsibility was forever clouded by his old ones, his friends.   
"Damn you Ishida!" Matt scolded himself as he blew warm air into his frozen hands, "You did have to wander off on your own. Sora offered to come, but NNOOOO you had to be stubborn and go off on your own."   
"Come on Matt." a husky voice said as it walked towards him, "You didn't know how lost we'd get."   
Matt smiled down at Gabumon as he stood next to his friend. He was right though. How could he have known that they'd end up in the Frozen File region of File Island. He was just lucky that the pack of Garurumon showed up when they did, or he'd be a permanent icicle. After wandering around on their own for what seemed like months after they defeated Puppetmon they found themselves traveling through ice and snow, with no more clothing than they had on their backs and there was no food to find. It eventually ended up with Matt collapsing from hunger and exhaustion with Gabumon only lasting a few hours more. When they both woke up, they were in a cave near a fire and two platters of food lying next to them. At first Matt thought that the other digidestined must have found them, but as the hours passed he knew that someone else had rescued them. When nightfall came, they were joined by a pack of wild Garurumon who explained that Matt was the leader that they were looking for, that he was the leader of the lonely. They gave him the area that he now ruled over, plenty of food and water, even allowed him to make fur clothes from the bodies of the Garurumon who died from natural causes with all he had to do in return was direct them and protect them from the 'outside world' although Matt did have a little help when it came to that.   
'Unfortunately I don't know how much longer I can even do that.' Matt thought to himself as another coughing fit consumed his frame.   
"Come on Matt, come sit by the fire." Gabumon directed him and placed a fur blanket over his shoulders. Matt just couldn't explain the coughing fits that were now common at least twice a day and they were increasing in frequency. The thought that it might be pneumonia had crossed his mind and was now almost the definite cause. Matt knew that Gabumon was becoming increasingly concerned at the fits and was trying his best to wave his questions off with a smile but Matt also knew that he couldn't fool Gabumon for much longer and he definitely couldn't fool him if Matt fell into a coma.   
"Lord Matt." Matt heard his chief scouter, whom he'd named Snowy, call as he jumped from the ground onto the ledge infront of the cave.   
"Yea, Snowy. What is it?" Matt asked as he ran to him, dropping the blanket onto the ground.   
"There's two trespassers who have just entered our territory." Snowy reported. Matt's immediate thought was that it was one of the digidestined.   
"What did they look like?" asked Gabumon, beating Matt to the question.   
"There was one who looked like you and a flying type digimon. I couldn't see clearly through the fog." Snowy explained, "What shall we do?"   
"Who's monitoring them at the moment?" Matt queried, hoping that it was not one of the more predatorial Garurumon.   
"Blizzard and Ice are at the moment and Ash and Misty aren't far away."   
'Oh, shit!" Matt thought, 'Ice and Ash could kill them. I'd better go look for myself.'   
"We're going too, so let's go." Matt responded and Gabumon digivolved into Garurumon.   
"Who do you think it is Matt?" Garurumon asked as they followed Snowy back through the woods, tracking the smells of the others.   
"Well, it's either Izzy, T.K or Sora." Matt replied.   
"I hope that it's either T.K or Sora." Garurumon said to which Matt replied,   
"I'm hoping that it's Sora." Matt told him.   
"Oh, yeah! That's right." and the wolf type digimon started chuckling causing Matt to start blushing.   
"It's not like that!" Matt yelled at him, "Well, Izzy would be alright but I definitely hope that it's not T.K. I know he can look after himself but he's too young to be wandering by himself plus Sora said that she'd look after him."   
"Sir, we're here." Snowy announced as they reduced their speed to a walk. In the fog ahead, Matt could see the shape of a flying digimon and their companion behind them so he couldn't tell who it was. He could also see Ice and Blizzard circling the two trespassers and was horrified when he saw Ice leap in an attempt to attack the person. Matt instantly knew who the two were when he heard the flying digimon yell out their attack.   
"Spiral Twister!"   
Matt and Garurumon watched in amusement as Ice was sent sprawling backwards and reeling from the attack.   
"Why... I'll get you!" he announced as he got back up and went to attack once more.   
With this, Garurumon with Matt aboard jumped infront of Sora and Biyomon. Matt heard Sora gasp in shock as he turned to Ice.   
"Stand down now!" Matt yelled at Ice, who kneeled down saying,   
"I'm sorry Lord Matt. I thought these were enemies."   
"And you KNOW that the standing order is to wait for Snowy to return with information before you do anything regarding outsiders." Matt barked at him, obviously annoyed. Matt stopped to get his breath back when he felt the tell-tale tickle in his throat signaling another fit. Matt fought to keep control of his body, but to no avail.   
Sora stood up and after checking that Biyomon was alright, she walked over to Matt and started rubbing his back.   
"How long has this been going on Garurumon." She asked his digimon, who then de-digivolved.   
"Ever since we collapsed in the snow two weeks after Puppetmon was destroyed." Gabumon explained.   
"That long?!" Sora exclaimed as she continued rubbing Matt's back, "Jeez Matt, you could have come back and we'd have got you some medical attention."   
"Our leader could not have left." Snowy told her, in a stern but gentle voice, "We need him and he refused to abandon his friends."   
Sora stopped rubbing Matt's back and backed away from him slightly, "Oh, then what are we Matt?"   
"You've got no idea Sora. These Garurumon need me." Matt told her as his coughing subsided.   
"Oh, and you think we don't?!" she demanded, "Poor T.K cries for you every night, Tai's even more irritable, Mimi and Joe left after you did, Izzy spends more time with his head in his computer than ever and Kari has to deal with T.K and when she's not she's worrying about you."   
"And what about you Sora?"   
"What about me?"   
"Yeah," Matt affirmed with a glint in his eyes, "What about you?"   
"I care enough about everyone to know that this isn't good for anyone so I came to find you." Sora replied, becoming defensive. 'Oh God Sora, why don't you just tell him?' she asked herself.   
"Oh, that's nice." Matt said in a dazed voice as his vision became black and he lost consciousness.   
"Matt?!" Sora called as she saw him fall and caught him in her arms.   
"Quick, get on. We need to get him back to the cave." Garurumon told her as he knelt down, put Matt on his back and waited until Sora and Biyomon were on, then took off in the direction of the cave. 

"Sora do you have any idea what Matt could be suffering from?" Gabumon asked as he and Biyomon worriedly watched over their friend.   
"I don't know, we'd have to get Joe in for a proper diagnosis but I think he might have pneumonia." she replied, looking at Matt with tears in her eyes, then looked out the entrance to see the beautiful view from the cave as the sun slowly set over the horizon.   
"I wish they would hurry up." Gabumon whispered to himself, no one else hearing him.   
"It's so beautiful here." Sora commented when something in the air on the horizon caught her attention. Thinking it was a wild digimon, she ignored it until she noticed that it was getting bigger, which meant it was coming towards them.   
"Uh, Gabumon? What is that over there?" she asked, pointing a finger at the fast approaching digimon.   
"Oh, thank God their back!" he exclaimed as he ran from Matt's side out the front to greet the incoming flyers.   
"Sam, Sarah, he's collapsed again!" Gabumon yelled at the two humans that were riding on the large eagle type digimon that had just landed.   
"How long has he been under this time?" the young man asked as he jumped off and ran to Matt.   
"It's been since about lunchtime." Gabumon replied as he ran next to the young man, whose name was obviously Sam.   
"God damn it!" he swore, looking at Matt's face and placed his hand on Matt's forehead, "He's not too bad this time. We'd better take turns watching him though. I don't want what happened last time happening again this time."   
"What happened last time?" Sora asked, completely confused as to who these two other humans were.   
"He slipped into a coma and Sam had to work on him for almost 10 minutes to get him back." the young woman replied, noticing the girl through the huge pile of herbs that she was carrying.   
"My names Sarah by the way." she said as she dumped the pile on the ground and held out her hand.   
"I'm Sora." Sora replied taking it.   
"How many times have I told you we need to keep these clean!" Sam growled at Sarah, placing them on the chiseled out shelf on the side of the cave, "It's a bit hard to find a good running source of water around here."   
Sarah rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him before turning back to Sora, "And that grump is Sam."   
"Hello." he said looking at Sora, before turning back to where he was boiling some water on the fire.   
"Hey." Sora replied quietly and a silence pursued until Sarah asked,   
"You must be one of Matt's friends from the big group. Now which one are you the ditz or the caring one or the... well you wouldn't be the young one."   
"I guess if those are the choices I'm the caring one." Sora told her, wondering how much Matt had told these two about the others and surprised that he had described her as caring.   
"AAAhhh, O.K." Sarah replied in an unusual tone, like she knew something about Sora that she herself didn't.   
"Sarah, just keep your yap shut. Matt trusted us and I'm not about to let you ruin everything." Sam instructed her, not even looking up from what he was doing.   
"So how long have you guys been in the Digiworld?" Sora asked.   
"We arrived three human days after you guys did which would be one digimon month." Sam replied without hesitating. Sora knew that he must be fairly smart but she wasn't quite sure about Sarah... she seemed to be too much of a chatterbox.   
"Hey Sora, you want a cup of tea?" Sam asked as he pulled the tin can off of the fire.   
"That would be great, thanks." said Sora, smiling. Maybe this guy wasn't as much of a loner and as distant as the girl made him out to be.   
"Sarah?"   
"Oh, yes please."   
"O.K. But just remind me to grab some more water so I can make Matt's medicine." he told her as he pulled three cups out of a backpack that was lying on the floor near him and pulled some leaves off of one of the bushes, placing some into each cup.   
"How do you know which bushes do what?" Biyomon asked him, wandering how a human could know so much about the Digiworld.   
"I helped him of course, of course." another voice said as it flew in from the entrance of the cave. As the digimon came into the light, Sora and Biyomon could see that it was a small hawk type digimon. It had a sharp pointed beak, yellow feathers on it's head with blue feathers on it's back and white ones on it's front. It was also wearing a pilot's hat on it's head.   
"And who are you?" Sora asked kindly.   
"My name is Hawkimon." the digimon replied.   
"Where's Doggamon?" Sarah asked Hawkimon.   
"She's still down washing herself. I swear sometimes I think she's picked up more bad habits from you that good ones." Hawkimon grumbled as he walked over to Sam, who was handing Sarah and Sora their tea. Sora could tell from this exchange that Hawkimon must be Sam's digimon. They acted like two peas in a pod.   
"You'll save some for me?" Hawkimon looked up at Sam, asking with pleading eyes.   
"It's not good to be that addicted to this stuff Hawki." Sam replied, before sighing and saying, "Of course I'll leave you some."   
"Thanks!" the digimon exclaimed as he jumped onto Sam's back and hugged his neck. Everyone laughed at this exchange while Sam became as red as a beet.   
"I think you'd better let go now Hawki." Sam quietly told his digimon, "before are mounted on my wall. I don't want my reputation changed."   
"And what reputation may that be Sam?" Sarah asked, still laughing.   
"What joke did I miss out on?" a feminine voice asked from the entrance to the cave before it made it's way to the fire.   
"Just another little exchange between Sam and Hawkimon." Sarah replied, picking up the digimon and placed it in her lap. It was like a little Labrador puppy dog apart from the fact that it was a bright gold with large black feet and it had a gold collar around it's neck with gold bracelets around it's legs.   
"Who are these two?" she asked, indicating Sora and Biyomon.   
"The human is Sora and the digimon is....." Sarah started before she realized she didn't know what the digimon was.   
"The digimon is Biyomon." Sam finished for her.   
"How did you know Sam?" Biyomon demanded.   
"When you have as much time as I do, you start to study the digimon analyzer for the different types of digimon." Sam replied.   
"You mean you have a laptop?!" Sora exclaimed.   
"Yeah, of course." Sam replied, handing his cup to Hawkimon who immediately sculled down the tea.   
"And Gennai sent the analyzer to you?"   
"You mean you know Gennai as well?" Sam asked, getting a bit excited. This was the first time they knew that someone else knew of Gennai.   
"Yeah, he sent us on a wild goose chase to find the crests and tags on Server and then sent us off to Piximon's place." Sora told him.   
"Did he make you work like a slave as well?" Sarah asked.   
"Need you ask?"   
"I'll take that as a yes."   
"Hey Sam, does you laptop still work?" and the teen looked up at her.   
"Of course it does, why?"   
"Well, we will probably be able to contact the other's through Izzy's laptop and we can all join together." Sora told them excitedly.   
"No." a groggy voice said from behind them.   
"Why not Matt?" Sora asked him as she moved over to help him sit up.   
"Because I can't face them after what I did."   
"What do you think you did Matt?" asked Sora, placing a comforting arm around his shoulder.   
"I abandoned you, all of you." Matt yelled at her, trying to get her arm off.   
"No you didn't Matt. You were there when we needed you, you were the one who defeated Puppetmon and we would have all been dead now if you hadn't." Sora told him firmly, trying to get it into his brain that he did nothing wrong.   
"But I left T.K when I was supposed to protect him." Matt said tears starting to come to his eyes. Sora knew that it was pointless trying to argue with him on that point.   
"But we all still need you now Matt." Sora said, "Especially T.K.... and I do too."   
All of the heads in the cave sprung up at that remark. Sarah smirked in Sam's direction, who pulled a hundred dollar bill out of his pocket and handed it to her and Gabumon, Biyomon, Hawkimon and Doggamon all smiled at each other.   
"You do too?" Matt repeated, not realizing what he had just heard.   
"Yes, and I can't look after T.K properly when I'm always wandering where you are and if you're alright." she told him.   
"That's why I left again after Puppetmon. I just couldn't face you." Matt told her, looking up from the fire into her eyes. A sharp cough brought them back to the real world and everyone heard a sharp bang and Sam crying in pain on the floor.   
"Opps, my hand slipped." Sarah remarked holding a frying pan in her hand and started laughing. Matt just shook his head and chuckled.   
"Why can't you two admit that you love each other?" he demanded, "I've almost had enough of your lover's spats."   
Sarah appeared in his face with the frying pan, "You want this as well?" and Matt shook his head.   
"Well then admit that you are wrong and that me and Sam aren't in love with each other."   
"I can't do that because I know it's not the truth." Matt replied.   
"Don't you dare hurt him Sarah." Sam commanded, "He's sick enough as he is."   
"What do you mean by that?" Matt demanded in a worried voice.   
"You're suffering from a severe case of pneumonia Matt, if I were you I'd swallow your pride and join back with the others where the climate is warmer." Sam told him. Everyone reeled in shock, they knew that he was bad but coming from Sam's mouth, all their fears seemed to emerge.   
"Alright Sam, I trust your judgment." Matt said and Sam nodded in agreement.   
"O.K Sora, what's Izzy's email address?"   
"Izz_man@japan.websurf.jp" Sora told him.   
"Right, I might even be able to get a chat connection up." Sam told them and emerged himself in his computer, Sarah watching over his shoulder and the digimon began eating their dinner.   
"How long have you been here with Sam and Sarah?" Sora asked Matt as she handed him a plate of food.   
"About three months." Matt replied between mouthfuls of food.   
"And how long have you been here?"   
"Four months." Matt told her, "Have you got the Dark Masters yet?"   
"If we had, we probably wouldn't still be here."   
"True." Matt agreed, dropping his head.   
"What are they like?" Sora asked.   
"Who? Sam and Sarah?" and Sora nodded, "They're great actually. I'm not sure how they feel about hanging around an 11 year old, but they don't act like they resent it."   
"How old are they?"   
"They're both 17 years old."   
"How did teenagers that age get sucked in here?"   
Matt shrugged his shoulders before saying, "Apparently they were hiking through some bush land while on this course for their Outdoor Education class and they found their digivices and were sucked into the Digiworld in the same fashion that we were."   
"Have they got their tags and crests yet?"   
"Yeah, they got them from Gennai himself." Matt replied as he ate another mouthful.   
"What are they?"   
"Sam's is Freedom and Sarah's is Loyalty. Hawkimon digivolves to the Champion stage called Eagleamon then the Ultimate stage is Flyermon and the Mega stage is MetalFlyermon." Matt told her, "Doggamon digivolves to Houndermon and then to MegaGnarlimon."   
"So Hawkimon has a Mega stage but Doggamon doesn't." Sora asked and Matt nodded, "I wonder what they look like."   
"You'll see soon enough." Matt said with a smile on his face.   
"Just one more question, is that hat of Hawkimon's a permanent feature or did he find it somewhere?"   
"No," Matt replied, "Sam gave it to him. Sam's father is a pilot and he want's to be a pilot as well. According to Sam, Hawki was snooping around in his bag when he found it and wouldn't take it off afterwards."   
Sora was about to tell Matt something when they heard a loud "Ripper!" and turned their heads to see Sam with a large grin on his face.   
"You guys, we're going back." he announced. 


End file.
